Parameters Affecting Fretting

Experimental investigations have concentrated on the effect of specific physical variables (such as
amplitude of slip,

normal load, frequency of vibration, and the circumstances of the fretting situation, such as type of
contact, mode of

vibration, and the condition of the surfaces) to indicate how the problem can be overcome in the future
design of

contacting components. These results are discussed in detail below.

Amplitude of Slip. Tomlinson (Ref 2) established that relative movement was essential for fretting to
occur and

showed that extremely small movements of the order of a few nanometers were capable of causing
damage. This aspect

of fretting--the lower limit of slip--has more recently been the subject of investigation (Ref 15, 16). One
of the problems

in experimental work has been the control and measurement of small amplitudes of movement. The
most satisfactory

method which avoids possible losses due to elastic deformation in the supports or actuators, is to
concentrate on the
situation of partial slip. This is best studied with a contact consisting of a ball (typically a bearing ball) on
a flat, a

situation that was analyzed by Mindlin. Figure 8 shows the form of contact of a ball on a flat developed
by Mindlin from

the Hertzian solution for a stationary contact. On the application of a tangential force or a torsional
force, slip occurs over

an outer annular region of the circle of contact. If the applied force is oscillating, then fretting occurs in
the slip region.

Johnson used this method to verify the Mindlin analysis (Ref 17). More recently, Nowell and Hills (Ref
18) have shown

that the stress distributions are somewhat distorted but the basic idea remains the same. The center of
the contact region

remains locked (that is, the nonslip region). The amplitude of movement in the slip region for torsional
excitation

presumably rises from zero at the inner boundary to some greater value at the outer edge. The
dimensions of the damage

area closely approach these limits